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Saturday, February 26, 2005

Book Blessing: How Loathsome 

How Loathsome by Ted Naifeh and Tristan Crane is an incredibly well-done graphic novel about a clique of San Francisco characters that are "fluid... of gender" and sexuality. Being self-identified as fluid of sexuality myself, I could definitely relate to that aspect of the plot line - in fact, I could relate specifically to the main character who briefly dates a transvestite - having dated two transvestites myself.

Yes, I say transvestite intentionally. The two men I am referring two from my own life identified as male in gender, but liked to dress up in women's clothing. The first, a gorgeous bleach-blond Eurasian who went by the name of a major German city, was an outstanding dancer. I wrote a story about him/her in one of my off-line chapbooks for those of you who have been reading my stories since back in those days.

The second was a very politically-active young man who wrote *the most* romantic Homer's-Odyssey-style poetry about me. This is the "transvestite in handcuffs" referred to in my last post about Jenny's visit. He had the most gorgeous curly hair. I wanted to have his hair, but contented myself with running my fingers through it for the two week duration of our affair.

Oh, yes, but about the book. It's very edgy - lots of drugs and sex, often occurring concurrently - including a threesome while under the influence. Just like my college years. ;-)

Comments:
I have to admit ignorance. Though I saw the tv(?) series version of Tales of the City, I never read the books. How Loathesome is a graphic novel, so it relies equally as heavy on the artwork as it does on the text. The heavy shadows cast throughout the imagery, the surreal intoxicated segment that borders on being an action plot, and the racial diversity of the characters on the fringe of the main clique don't fit what my mind recalls from the Tales of the City. I guess I kind of went on a tangent in my description of the book and left a lot of those details out, huh? :-) But I never thought of Tales of the City as being quite as edgy as this graphic novel. I could be wrong, though.
 
Do you have Dracula's contact info? He wrote me the best 20+ page letter that I've saved.
 
Unfortunately, I don't have Dracula's contact info or even know of his whereabouts. We haven't been in touch for 11 year! Yikes! Not since a mutually disappointing visit we had with one another in 1994 in Maryland.
 
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